MSU Trustee Issues a Statement

Submitted by HelloHeisman91 on

Enough is enough. We need a just and equitable settlement where we do right by our courageous survivors. It is time that we all work together, MSU and our courageous survivors, to chart a new course forward, focused on healing rather than adversity. My statement below: pic.twitter.com/JyaZAGgIB4

— Brian Mosallam (@Bmosallam63) April 13, 2018

Its Great to be...

April 14th, 2018 at 8:23 PM ^

I emailed all of the trustees in January at the height of the coverage in the Nassar trial, calling them out and urging them to resign (I used a level of discourse appropriate for David Brandon). I did get a response from Mosallam (he admitted that they deserved to be called out like that), and we subsequently traded a few emails.



My assessment: he seems to genuinely care and his public comments and actions are positive in light of the situation. That being said, I think he’s in way over his head. Sadly, he’s probably the best one of the group, by a mile.



I really want to know what Snyder is doing to remove the trustees (presumably nothing). As this tire fire continues to burn out of control, his dereliction of duty is growing faster than the list of victims.



VicTorious1

April 14th, 2018 at 9:30 PM ^

Snyder isn't doing much if anything to remove the board members. I'm sure he's aware and may be concerned with the optics of removing them. Snyder has his bachelor's (general studies - I know a fake degree according to MSU fans), MBA and law degree all from UM. That may contribute to his hesitance to remove the entire MSU board. Under the Michigan constitution, however, he has the right to remove them in addition to the statutory authority to do so.

taut

April 14th, 2018 at 11:15 PM ^

There's the additional risk for Synder that, like the appointment of an Emergency Financial Manager for a bankrupt city, once he removes leadership and replaces them he owns the situation from there on out. Not sure I'd want to own the MSU dumpster fire, but his hand may be forced eventually. Then again, "eventually" may not happen until after he's out of office and it will be his successor's problem.

Mr Miggle

April 15th, 2018 at 8:15 AM ^

To remove the board without waiting for a report from that investigation doesn't make much sense. It would be an extraordinary, probably unprecedented, move to make after a report. To have any governor, let alone a lame duck, try to make it now is hard for me to see, More likely will be a move towards changing how the boards are selected and/or can be removed in the future.

Arb lover

April 15th, 2018 at 9:06 AM ^

Wanting to form an 'Audit and Risk Committee" and promote compliance and risk Management will pretty much end up with simply another committee and programs in place to protect the university from fallout of compliance issues. 

I know he's coming at this from his background as a financial advisor and probably a decent understanding of corporate audit/board requirements, but, a public university is an entirely different animal, and the board needs to be beholden to all aspects of the university, teachers, students, and local community. 

He should consider just making an independent audit and compliance committee with an open door policy where the board and its employees are paid by the university but hired and fired by the state legislature, or at a minimum the entire board of trustees. Once the committee's function includes risk management, it starts seeing things in grey and looking at potential fallout of required disclosure as a risk, and here we are with MSU after they applied their risk management strategy for years in covering up Nassar's mess. 

Qseverus

April 14th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^

Mosallam says he wants to "chart a new course." It seems pretty clear this will not happen by appointing a member of “Team MSU” (a term used by President Simon in her resignation letter) like Engler to lead the effort. The "first policy action of the Committee" should be to replace Engler with an independent, unencumbered leader who is not a member of “Team MSU.”

ijohnb

April 14th, 2018 at 7:30 PM ^

guess I feel like this is somebody saying as many words as possible while try to actually say as little as humanly possible. So.... hmm, I guess I acknowledge the recitation of these unexceptionable talking points with a polite golf clap? Maybe?

DeepBlueC

April 14th, 2018 at 7:33 PM ^

"We want everyone to forget about all the sick shit we enabled and stop accusing us of enabling really sick shit and treating victims like them being raped was less important than preserving our reputation."

bacon1431

April 14th, 2018 at 7:34 PM ^

It’s still pretty idiotic to ask victimcs to “work together” with oppressors. The university doesn’t need the victims in order to do the right thing.

ToledoWolverine

April 14th, 2018 at 7:43 PM ^

The board, the administration, everyone, needs to go. This is a situation that calls for a scorched earth campaign. No survivors. Yes throw the baby out with the bath water. There should not be anyone left standing who could have possibly, remotely, contextually complicit in this shit, this quagmire. As sick as I am of hearing about Michigan State, I do not want this story to just fade away.



John Engler should be on the next bus out of East Lansing. He has proven beyond a shadow of any doubt, he is both tone deaf and incompetent.

yossarians tree

April 15th, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^

That place is so incestuous they literally don't know how to look at themselves the way others do. Here was an interesting MLive article about Simon and how the culture that contributed to this crisis was built:

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/page/how_msu_culture_fostered_sexua…

 

"But coming up through MSU meant Simon could surround herself with loyalists and create an "entrenched, top-down" structure, said Andaluna Borcila, a professor in the university's James Madison College and one of 61 Faculty Senate members to vote 'no confidence' in the Board of Trustees.

The university provost, June Pierce Youatt, earned her degrees at MSU, as did five of MSU's 19 deans. By comparison, Wayne State University has no deans with degrees from Wayne and the University of Michigan has one of 19 deans with a U-M degree.

 

 

LSAClassOf2000

April 14th, 2018 at 8:07 PM ^

The best statement anyone on that Board could make right now is, well, not being on that Board right now. Whatever happens next at MSU, it seems like it should happen with none of those people still making decisions about the direction of the university. 

1VaBlue1

April 14th, 2018 at 8:12 PM ^

Hollow...  At least this BoT member understands the optics involved.  But he still voted for Engler, and probably believes Engler is doing a good job.  What he needs to know, though, is that there is no possibility of Engler doing the right job when he was hired to do the wrong job.  But he doesn't seem very good at the wrong job - trying to get past all of this by settling as quickly as possible, either.  So, what good is he?

The right job is to clean house and start from scratch, university reputation be damned...

HireWayne

April 14th, 2018 at 8:37 PM ^

They didn't say anything.

It's bullshit the state taxes I pay go to this cult that calls themselves an institution of higher learning.

Snyder needs to step in.

HireWayne

April 14th, 2018 at 8:37 PM ^

They didn't say anything.

It's bullshit the state taxes I pay go to this cult that calls themselves an institution of higher learning.

Snyder needs to step in.

twohooks

April 14th, 2018 at 8:37 PM ^

It looks to me as if MSU is being played by everyone at this moment. Victims, Media and Attorney’s. Every move they make there seems to be 3 counter moves against them. They can’t seem to realize that whatever they perceive they are protecting has already been destroyed. That must be an awful feeling.



HireWayne

April 14th, 2018 at 8:44 PM ^

I disagree. This was an organic reaction.

The victims, media, and attorneys weren't playing a chess match. They were genuinely appalled by the lack of empathy displayed by the interim President.

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

April 14th, 2018 at 8:37 PM ^

Engler’s removal and a full sweep of the general counsel office, with replacement by true outsiders, then I’ll give him credit for seeing the bigger picture. Right now, he just sees the political picture with far more outrage after the $250k and BoT fiasco yeadterday.

Crisis management requires total admission of mistakes and admonishment of the system that led to the crisis. So far, they’ve only expressed regret for the incidents and blamed Nassar.

The system caused the extent of the problem. Restoration will only happen when they have to purged the whole system at MSU - including the BoT.

Stuck in Lansing

April 14th, 2018 at 9:16 PM ^

Brian Mosallam could have fired Lou Anna, he could have fired Strampel, he could have voted against Engler. MSU and the state of Michigan are worse off for him being on the BoT. For his twitter post, I award him no points.